But the man would never find her. Inez thought Adriana had gone overboard, but she knew now that she’d been wise to create the hiding places on the ranch in case such an instance occurred. She could hardly believe she’d needed the hiding spot but was so grateful for it.
With only a little light filtering through, she caught her breath and waited. If only she hadn’t left her cell on the table she could call and warn Brent and Inez. Someone had saved her out there—but if it had been Brent or Inez, they would have shown themselves. Even though she apparently had a helper, she couldn’t move from this spot until the man had gone, but what if he went to harm the helper, or Brent and Inez?
Despite trying to prepare for every foreseeable situation, she’d never considered this particular set of circumstances—people were potentially in harm’s way while she—Adriana Garcia, the reason they were in danger—hid away.
She couldn’t stay here.
Just as she crawled from the space, she heard a vehicle speed away in the distance across the border on the other side of the river. As relieved as she was that the man was leaving without hurting anyone, she couldn’t repress a shiver of dread. If he was willing to leave, that meant he’d already gotten what he came for.
And that could only mean one thing.
The man was now calling her brother, drug lord Rio Garcia, to tell him he’d found his sister.
FIVE
Through the window, Brent looked for Adriana while he made a call. He’d come back to the house a few moments ago to find she wasn’t there. But then he caught sight of Adriana running toward the ranch. The terror on her face sent his heart into his throat. He ended his call. He’d been on hold and couldn’t get an answer anyway. He grabbed his weapon and bounded down the stairs, passing Inez on his way.
“What’s the matter?” Her eyes grew wide with fear.
“I don’t know. Stay here.” He burst through the front door, jumped off the porch and ran toward Adriana, his gaze searching the area for any indication of a threat.
“Brent!” she called, anguish in her tone and features.
She ran right into his arms and pressed her face against him. He tucked the gun away and wrapped his arms around her, remaining prepared to use his weapon if necessary. But Adriana was in his arms shivering. Grass and sticks were littered through her hair. He gripped her arms and pushed her from him to look into her face. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Whatever it was had reduced this strong, tough woman to a trembling clump.
“Someone was here.” Her voice shook. “He tried to force me to come with him. Threatened to kill you if I didn’t.”
He jerked his gaze up. Pulled his weapon out again. “Where? Where is he?”
“I ran away and hid, and then I heard him drive off. He’d crossed the river to get to the ranch, then crossed back over. I found a disturbed booby trap. The air horn was gone! Maybe he planned to sneak onto the property later and I stumbled onto him before he got the chance. But it doesn’t matter.” She started gasping for breath, clearly upset. “You know what this means?”
A cloud of dread settled over him. “He’ll likely be informing his boss he’s found you.”
It meant the Garcia cartel would be here soon. And Brent couldn’t protect Adriana, couldn’t hold them off on his own. They were days, if not hours, away from a full-on confrontation. There was no telling how many men Garcia would bring, and Brent had no backup. Not good. Not good at all.
“Come on.” He grabbed her arm and ushered her forward. “Let’s get you back inside.” For all the good it would do. “Don’t go out there alone again. What were you doing near the property line? I told you to stay close to the house.” Well, at least he knew he couldn’t trust her again not to go anywhere on her own.
They made the porch, and he glanced around them before stepping inside, where Inez waited to hear the news.
“So how did you escape him?” he asked.
Adriana explained about the threat and that a rock had hit the man. She glanced up at Brent, pausing at her words as if their meaning just now registered with her.
“Who threw the rock?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I was too scared to care. They were hiding. He had a gun and he came for me as soon as he realized I’d seen the disabled alarm. He grabbed me. Yanked me off the fence line and straddled me. I think he wanted to hurt me, but he’d been instructed to bring me with him alive. I think he was afraid I would make a run, so he decided to threaten me with harm to you. When the rock hit him in the head and he fell off me, I took advantage of that and hid in one of my spots.”
He couldn’t help himself and grinned, even in these dire circumstances. “You have hiding spots.”
“Yes. I’ve thought of everything, except for one thing. As I sat there waiting, I was worried about you and Inez. I didn’t have my phone with me, so I couldn’t call and warn you. I decided to come out of hiding at the same moment I heard a vehicle speed away. I looked through the trees and across the river and saw the dust as the vehicle disappeared.”
Adriana pressed her face into her hands.
He couldn’t stand seeing her like this. She had to be one of the strongest people he knew, given what she’d endured, but everyone had their limits. It looked like she’d reached the end of her rope. He sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her, cherished the feel of her safe and sound in his arms. This could have gone so much worse and it would have been on Brent’s watch. He couldn’t let anything happen to Adriana.
He caught Inez’s approving gaze. The woman noticed a lot, which was probably why Adriana decided not to keep her true identity from Inez. It would have been a losing battle. And he could understand that she felt alone in the world and needed at least one person in whom she could confide. Brent couldn’t be more grateful that Inez was a praying woman—Adriana needed all the prayer she could get.
When Adriana lifted her gaze, tears streaked her face and she swiped furiously at them. “How could I have thought I’d have a chance to live here, to hide here, without any danger?”
“You did for a while, Adriana. You did. You needed that time to get centered. And when this is over, who knows? Maybe you’ll find that sense of peace and security you long for. But it’s definitely not over yet. I’m going to call my boss and let him know what’s happened. To get him to speed things up on his end. In the meantime, we’ll have to go over the ground rules again. I’ll watch over the ranch and protect you, and I hope to have some help with that soon, but I can’t do my job if you’re not willing to follow my simple instructions.”
“I’m sorry...but if I hadn’t checked the booby trap, he could have sneaked onto the ranch tonight and we wouldn’t have known he was coming until it was too late.” She pressed her hands over her head. “It’s too much. My traps can’t hold back an army.”
Brent released a breath. “I won’t argue with you there. The traps only worked to warn you of an intruder. You’ve been warned, but seems to me there was another intruder. I need to find out who threw that rock. Besides you and Inez, have you seen anyone near the ranch?”
“No,” Inez said.
Adriana shook her head. “Of course not. I would have told you.”
He nodded. “All right. I’m going to check the perimeter again. You stay inside.”
“But what about the llamas? There are chores to be done.”
He looked to Inez. “You’ve been here for years, right? Will they be okay if Adriana doesn’t do her usual chores?”
“Of course,” the woman said. “They have a pasture to feed on and they have plenty of water. They are free to come and go to the barn at will. The only concern we have right now is our one llama, Kiana, who will give birth to her cria any day now.”
He nodded. “Okay, then. I’ll go grab her and keep her close in the barn.”
<
br /> Inez shook her head. “There’s no need. I fed her grain an hour ago. She’s still in there.”
Reassured that Adriana and Inez would stick close to the house, he drew his weapon again and hiked around the perimeter of the ranch while he called Major Vance again. Finally, he got someone.
“Vance here.”
“Garcia knows where we are.” Brent went on to explain what had happened. “That means Adriana needs more than me to protect her here.” Which had been the plan, but Brent grew impatient for the arrival of his Texas Rangers brothers.
“Let’s bring her in, then.”
“Can’t do that. There’s a llama going to give birth any day now. She won’t leave. There’s an older woman who lives here, who is leasing the ranch to Adriana in a private agreement. Neither of them are going to leave. I need some backup here now!”
“I agree. And Adriana is our best chance of catching Garcia.”
“I want her protected.”
“That goes without saying, McCord. The others are coming in after another dead lead on Carmen. You’ll have to hold it together until we get there. If you think she’s in imminent danger, then you’re going to have to leave the llama and get her out of there. We’re coming as fast as we can. Now, what about the cash and drugs? Have you discovered their location yet?”
“She’s not going to give that information up until we get Garcia or she feels completely safe. One or the other. It’s her only leverage against him should he take her. She took it to bring him down, and without that bargaining chip, he’ll kill her on sight if he finds out she’s given them up to us.”
“Keep working to find out.”
“Of course.”
“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Brent ended the call, grinding his molars. Texas had the lion’s share of the United States–Mexico border with 1,254 of the 1,900-mile-long border. Their reconnaissance team tasks were slowed by the sheer size of the setting in which they worked.
It could take the Rangers hours to get here. That meant they would be here on the ranch alone for hours. Brent didn’t like it one bit. He’d start working to convince her to leave the ranch. Her and Inez. But then someone would have to watch over the llamas. As he hiked the ranch, he was mindful of the proximity to the Rio Grande and how easy it was to cross over from Mexico at this point. Once it was discovered Adriana was here, at this particular location, there were any number of ways that the Garcia cartel could approach.
Despite the fact she’d run into someone only minutes ago, he hadn’t come across anyone lurking around the ranch or on the periphery who could have thrown the rock to distract the henchman. Possibly it had been a stranger passing by for some reason who had protected her. But why wouldn’t they have stuck around to make sure she was all right?
He found the disturbed booby trap. He should have thought to bring another air horn. Best to keep the warning system in place. It could still work and was better than nothing. He searched for her hiding spot—she’d left it open and vulnerable, and it was easy to find now. The woman was more than resourceful, but faced with the reality that her brother’s men had found her and would come for her soon, she’d almost crumbled under the weight of it.
He made his way back to the house and helped Adriana secure Kiana in the barn and perform other chores. Watching, always watching. He would pull an all-nighter watching over the ranch.
So much for grabbing a shower.
Adriana met him on the porch, concern in her eyes.
Dusk was on them as he clomped up the steps and planned to push right by her. He’d been avoiding telling her his news. She might see the utter fear in his eyes. “Backup is coming. But we’re probably on our own tonight.”
She pressed her hand against his arm and he hesitated. Then gazed down at her.
“Brent,” she whispered. Turmoil infused her big brown eyes and turned his heart inside out.
Oh, don’t do that. Please don’t do that. He cleared his throat. “What is it?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
That gave him pause, but he held the door open. “You should get inside and stay inside, like I asked.”
“Did you hear me?” She slid past him—almost, that was. She didn’t go all the way but stood in the doorway close to him and looked up. In her eyes, he saw that she’d turned this personal when he thought they’d had an unspoken agreement to keep their distance.
“I heard you. But you shouldn’t worry about me. This is part of my job.”
Hurt flickered in her gaze and she moved inside.
“Bolt the doors behind me,” he said.
“Wait. What?”
He closed it, hoping she’d stay inside and follow his instructions.
Brent couldn’t very well keep watch over the property inside his room. He’d found a few places he could stay hidden while he watched and made his way over to a nearby cluster of trees. Darkness had settled in. He had all his ammo and prayed to God it wouldn’t come to a gun battle tonight.
But hours later, the sound of an air horn resounded, breaking the silence. His heart jumped into his throat. One of Adriana’s booby traps had just been set off. Fear for Adriana and Inez curdled in his stomach.
* * *
Adriana bolted up in her bed and found her heart pounding as she gasped for breath. What had startled her?
She glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning. She’d finally fallen asleep. She hadn’t thought she’d be able to, knowing that Brent was out there. It wasn’t the kind of situation where she would sleep easier knowing someone was standing guard. No. She worried too much for his safety. Brent was outside, waiting and watching, and if danger showed up, he would face impossible odds.
She scraped the hair from her face and drew in a few calming breaths until her heart rate finally slowed. The air horn. That was what had woken her. But someone had silenced it. With that thought, the fog of sleep cleared and Adriana pushed herself into action. She scrambled out of bed and found Inez standing in the hallway, her eyes wide.
“Go, Inez. Go get in our hiding place.” Inez nodded and grabbed Adriana’s hand to pull her along.
But Adriana tugged her hand back. “No, I’m not going.”
“But you must,” the woman pleaded. “That has always been our plan. To hide in the tunnel and escape when it’s safe!”
Adriana hated hearing the desperation in the older woman’s voice. Poor Inez. The woman had cared for her. Nursed her back to health after Adriana had collapsed on her ranch, and this was how Adriana repaid her?
“Sweet friend, that was the plan before Brent McCord arrived. I can’t... I can’t hide in the tunnel knowing he’s out there and could need help. The other Rangers aren’t here yet to help him. Now go! If you don’t, you’ll distract me because I’ll be worried about you.”
Inez hesitated, then finally nodded.
Adriana couldn’t wait anymore but had to trust that Inez would do as she’d asked. She left the woman in the hallway, rushed to her gun locker at the back of her closet and pulled out two guns and a knife. She grabbed her body armor and donned a helmet. Sure, she’d had the warnings in place. The hiding places prepared. Enough ammo for a small army. But she’d hoped and prayed it would never come to this.
And now that it had?
Terror raced through her veins.
But Brent was out there. She wouldn’t let him go through this alone. After she quickly prepared herself for battle as if she were a highly skilled soldier, she sneaked out of a trapdoor in a shadowed corner of the house and stealthily made her way in the direction from where the air horn had sounded. At least, where she thought it had come from. It was hard to tell because she’d been asleep and startled awake.
The temperature had dropped below forty, but hiking kep
t her limbs warm and sweat trickled down her back. Halfway across the field, she stopped and crouched low to the ground. Waited and listened.
Had the man who’d tried to take her earlier today come back for her? Had he brought others with him—maybe including her brother?
Brent remained her biggest concern right now as she searched the llama ranch. Unfortunately, the moon was full, and she would be easily spotted if someone was looking in the right direction, even though she crouched close to the ground.
Tonight, just before he’d demanded she lock herself in, he’d put a cold emotional barrier between them. It had been so abrupt, so palpable, it might as well have been physical, and in a way, with the bolting of the door, it had been. But in this moment, she shouldn’t be thinking about where their emotional connection stood. It didn’t mean she’d leave him out here alone to fight for her—whether it was his job or something more. She never wanted him to be in the line of fire again, especially for her.
“Brent,” she whispered.
Movement in the distance drew her attention. She dropped completely to lie flat on the ground and let her gaze roam the area. She saw no one, but had someone seen her? Though the moon shone bright, she tugged on her night-vision goggles, struggling to believe she needed to use them.
A noise from a nearby patch of scrub brush caused her to still. She slowly crept forward until she reached a tree, then stood behind the trunk, her weapon at the ready.
What am I doing? No matter how much she’d prepared, she wasn’t cut out for this kind of tension and strain. She’d never been in a gun battle before. Still, losing her courage now meant she could die.
Waiting behind the tree, she listened and watched. Where are you, Brent?
She wanted to call out to him. That he hadn’t appeared, hadn’t found her yet, scared her. He should catch anyone out prowling around while searching for who or what set off the alarm, including her.
The cold muzzle of a weapon pressed into the side of her head.
Oh, God, I’m going to die!
Texas Christmas Defender Page 6
